It's usually at this point in the year (winter here in the NE) that I decide enough dieting, it's time to eat and bulk. I'm thinking that's not such a good idea since I always seem to be scrambling before summer hits to get lean and then vacation type behavior (i.e. drinking/eating) start to take over all fitness plans. So, I'm thinking of going for broke, sticking with dieting, and going for abs.

I'm looking for help from this board on the best strategy for achieving abs by Memorial day and also getting a gut check on if this is even a reasonable goal in the time frame.

I used a combo of EOD and UD2 to get me to this point. Usually I'll go EOD if work gets in the way due to work travel or meetings or family obligations. If I see a clear week where I see I have "control" I'll switch to UD2.

As an aside, I love UD2. I know many find it painful, but I personally can't go on RFL forever. 4 days of dieting where I see the light at the end of the tunnel and a carb load is perfect. Also, at 49 I can't pound my joints going heavy endlessly. The early week high rep work helps me avoid injury.

So, my first question is, is this goal realistic? Or too ambitious understanding the time available and other factors?

If it is, would my EOD/UD2 combo work or would you recommend another approach?

And lastly, any thoughts from mathematicians and BF experts on what my landing spot should be in terms of body weight where abs would be visible?

Haha, probably the latter. Note that I could be wrong about your BF%. If it's lower, your target weight may as well be 160+ lbs.

Looking small (with clothes on anyway) is a problem for a lot of natural lifters. Without regard of the genetically gifted or lean, for most of us it's not very satisfactory. At least esthetically.

I'm not genetically gifted. That's for sure.

Not sure if this is any help but my legs are sticks. My calves are non-existent (despite my dad having monstrous ones) and my quads/upper legs are similar. There is no doubt I carry most of my fat in the midsection.

I'm also not terribly vascular. Even when I was a stick in high school I always wondered why I didn't have cool veins.

If you are correct in your estimations, I don't think my goal is realistic. With 12 weeks and 15-20 lbs to go that's 1.5 lbs of fat loss per week. Don't think that's going to happen. Right before I slowed up at the holidays, I was hitting < 1 lb per week and sometimes I'd have flat weeks. In short, the low hanging fruit has been plucked. My body is no doubt fighting me now and doesn't want to let go as much as it did in the Fall.

Forget the exact percentages anyways, and using those to pin down exact numbers.

My gut tells me 15 - 20 lbs. is about right though. This has been said already, but when most naturals get lean enough to have abs, they realize they no longer look like they lift weights. I think if you hit 160 you'd be happy though, get there first and see what you look like. It's a nice round number.

Here's a quick way to estimate though if you're set on determining roughly how much you need to lose. I've had a couple DEXA scans and find the numbers generated from this website match up fairly well.

This is the Navy body fat calculator. The big metrics here are your waist at the navel, height, weight, and your neck size. Personally, ~5 lbs. or so of weight (hopefully fat) lost equals ~1 in. on my waist.

Obviously individuals have different body fat patterns, so if you don't store a disproportional amount of fat around your mid section, or elsewhere, it can throw this off. But give it a whirl if you're curious.